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Arthur Phillips (right, with Mark Miller) . . . “It’s not so much about numbers to me, but rather an approach or visionary leadership on the issue that lends itself to diversity.”

David Doege

(Page 4 of 4)

When a promising associate recently left Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek SC for an opportunity in Chicago, he left behind a vacancy not easily filled by Milwaukee law firms.

The departure left the firm with one fewer minority attorney, a highly coveted class of practitioners intensely recruited by partnerships from coast to coast.

Competing with firms from larger cities around the country for young attorneys and prized law school graduates is a challenge in itself, according to Mark Miller, Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek's chief executive officer.

"In many cases it's very difficult to get a young person to come to Milwaukee, a relatively small city, if that person isn't from the area," Miller said.

Convincing minority attorneys and graduates that they can find a satisfying quality of life in Milwaukee is doubly challenging because of the city's image as a segregated community with limited cultural options for minorities, Miller said.

"It's hard to overcome that perception," he said.

The departing associate left for Chicago, Miller noted, because the city offered more.

"It was painful for us and painful for him because he really liked working here," Miller said during an interview in his firm's office overlooking Cathedral Square.

The keen competition for minority law school graduates comes as minority hiring has accelerated among the nation's law firms over the past decade, according to Miller and Maureen McGinnity, chief diversity partner at Milwaukee law firm Foley & Lardner LLP.

"We're in the legal profession and the legal profession ought to provide fair opportunities," McGinnity said. "At a more business line level, clients are very vocal in demanding diversity of the legal teams that are servicing them."

Currently, 11.6 percent of Foley & Lardner's 1,000-plus attorneys nationwide -- including 263 locally -- are minorities, up from 7.4 percent in 2000, McGinnity said. About 7 percent of the firm's partners are minorities, she said.

"Of our associates, we are at over 20 percent being people of color," said Miller, whose firm has 106 attorneys in Milwaukee and 133 nationwide. "Ten years ago we may have had one.

"We don't have any minority partners at this point. Ten years from now it will be a different picture," he said.

Significant resource

In his firm's push to diversify, Miller said the University of Wisconsin Law School has become a significant resource. The school has been recruiting minorities through its Legal Education Opportunities program for the past 40 years and 25 percent of the class that entered during the current academic year came from minority backgrounds.

"For a relatively nondiverse state we think we're doing quite well," said law school dean Kenneth Davis Jr. "We are responding to what we hear from the firms. They say this kind of thing is important for them."

Miller said his firm leans heavily on the school because of its proximity to Milwaukee.

"It provides us a significant start in recruiting because the people there realize that Wisconsin can be a great place to live and work," he said.

"We have firms that recruit here that otherwise would not," Davis said. "They do it because of our significant minority representation."

At Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, minorities represent 15 percent of the enrollees in the current academic year, according to Joseph Kearney, the school's dean.

"Marquette Law School has a substantial tradition with respect to recruiting and graduating a diverse class of students," Kearney said. "As a private law school with a substantial tuition we face particular challenges in competing with other schools that either have lower tuition for in-state residents or better endowments."

"We're a national law firm and we invest in schools where there is a significant minority population and there isn't one at Marquette," McGinnity explained. "Our program is designed to invest in schools that will give us exposure to a sizeable pool of minority students and Marquette just doesn't have that."

Kearney disagreed.

"The statement that there is not a significant minority population at Marquette is simply false," he said. "There is today, and there long has been.

"Anyone familiar with the legal profession in this community knows that Marquette Law School has done more to diversify the bench and bar in this region than any other law school. To decline to invest in Marquette is to decline to have an interest in this region."

Comfort level

When Arthur Phillips, an African-American attorney who graduated from Marquette University Law School in 1990, landed at Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek in 2007, he felt comfortable with the attitude toward diversity there.

"I found an awareness that was attractive to me," said Phillips. "It's not so much about numbers to me, but rather an approach or visionary leadership on the issue that lends itself to diversity."

A native of Memphis, Tenn., Phillips has remained in Milwaukee since enrolling at Marquette in 1987, because he is comfortable here.

"I'm certainly aware of Milwaukee's image," he said. "But I think there are opportunities for minorities to make positive contributions to the future of the city."

MINORITY LAW STUDENTS

Number of minorities entering the University of Wisconsin Law School (percentage of total enrollment in parentheses).

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